Preventive Medicine? Health Risks & Birth Control

For far too long there has been an ominous silence across America on arguably the most controversial and devastating issue of the day—birth control. As so often we see in history, oppression gives rise to courage and, no question, courage is exactly what we are seeing in Church leaders and layman alike in response to the Obama administration’s recent birth control mandate and more recent unacceptable modifications.

.The Birth Control Mandate has forced the issue of contraception to move from being the elephant in the room to center stage. Perhaps in time we will see that it was a hidden blessing for our country. For years pro-life organizations refused to discuss or take on this topic despite the fact that free access to birth control increases the number of surgical abortions(1) (2). Most people repeat over and over that birth control decreases the number of abortions. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, today for every child born in the US, there are an estimated 2 children killed in the womb from both surgical and chemical, abortifacient drug abortions (3). What isn’t being talked about is that the new mandate also pre-disposes women to serious long term and permanent health problems. In conjunction with the defense of both religious liberty and the spiritual well-being of women, we must also refute the absurd and deceptive statement that “women are healthier on birth control”.

Providing free hormonal birth control to women under the guise of ‘preventative services’ and ‘women’s health’ is a lie and women of all faiths

Jenn Giroux, RN

deserve to know the truth.

Hormonal birth control methods can enter the body in various ways. These ways include ‘The Pill’ (by mouth), the Mirena IUD (Intrauterine Device), the implant (placed under the skin), ‘the Patch’ (absorbed through the skin), and the Vaginal Nuvaring. There are many other estrogen -progestin name brands that can be added to this list. Any way you name it, these hormone drugs dispense poison into a woman’s body.

Perhaps HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should inform her President of the following before he makes additional statements to the press like “it is cheaper to prevent than to treat”. Consider this:

–Since 1975 there has been a 400% increase in “in situ” breast cancer among pre-menopausal women under 50 years old. This mirrors the increased use of birth control over these same years. (“In situ” is a medical term which means “at the location” (4).

–A Mayo Clinic study confirms that any young girl or woman who is on hormonal birth control for 4 years prior to their first full term pregnancy increases their breast cancer risk by 52%. (5)

–Women who use hormonal birth control for more than 5 years are four times more likely to develop cervical cancer. (6)

–The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization, classifies all forms of hormonal contraception as a Group 1 carcinogen. This group of cancer causing agents also includes cigarettes and asbestos. (7) Why is it that the FDA can require cigarette manufacturers to place warning labels and real life photos of corpses on cigarette packages to warn consumers of the health dangers yet they, in turn, take an equally harmful substance (hormonal birth control) and force companies to give it away free to young girls without parental consent and woman of all ages?

–For high school boys and men to take steroid drugs, it is a crime. Whereas girls and women taking steroid drugs (i.e. hormonal birth control) are now treated as if they are taking a sacred, life preserving vitamin that women cannot live without. (8)

–In October 2010 the NY Times carried an article about Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs. It quoted the America Medical Association (AMA) as warning women that these post-menopausal drugs which were originally marketed as keeping a women “young and sexy” were discovered instead to be more likely to cause advanced and deadly breast cancer.(9) It stopped short of making one other startling revelation: The only difference between hormone replacement therapy drugs which cause deadly breast cancer and the hormonal birth control drugs (now mandated by the Obama administration) is that the birth control drugs are six times the dosage—and are the very same drug!

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Excellent and consice. Thank you for the current dangers and sources. I ail be copying and sharing. Thank you!

guest

Also, I found on the NuvaRing website, that these hormones also increase the risk of gall bladder disease and liver tumors. The side effects are listed in bold print on the websites of the companies that produce the “medications”. But women still ignore them.

Jessica

Keep up the good work. Birth control is prescribed to young girls who may be silently suffering from pressure to have sex by their peers. The doctors off the drug as some lying sort of cure-all; acne, pms pain, you name it, they list it. The idea is false, and what girls truly need is to go to a prolife chiropractor or doctor (Dr. Hilger’s or Brownstein are good sources.) I had some irregularity issues and the chiropractor was the only doctor out of 6 that began to relieve my ailments with supplements for my pituitary (which is commonly affected negatively by braces), hypothyroidism, hypothalamus, and progesterone/estrogen levels. I’m a working lady! The first time I was offered birth control I accepted a FREE!! sample and couldn’t have ruined my life more… it was unhealthy, unacceptable, and overall a kill-all. Thank God for REAL doctors. God Bless~

Jessica

What needs to start happening is if someone is on it, they need to talk to a reliable friend who will help them get off of it. Or a priest if possible!!

Nancy Dallas

thank you, why is it that even Catholic women are not informed concerning this? All women should know.

chaco

They SCREAM at us; “The Church has no business in MY bedroom”. The Truth can hurt but only at 1st, Blessings follow ie; those who follow the Church’s recommendation of NFP(not the old Rhythm Method) don’t have any bad side effects. [It can even be used to promote pregnancy.] This warning from St. Paul applies; “For those who recieve (Eucharist / Communion) unworthily… For this reason many are weak & sick among you” 1Corinthians 11. 29-30

Nmcinnis

Looked up breast cancer at the Mayo Clinic. Didn’t find anything suggesing the increase in breast cancer because of the pill and it also mentioned that the pill decreased the chances of getting other forms of cancer.

Kat

That’s wonderful that you found an alternative therapy to help you, but oral contraception helps a lot of women for various ailments, myself included. You’re making very large generalizations. I wish we could all understand that there are millions of people in this country, and we all have different bodies, and it’s each woman’s right to decide (hopefully in an educated way) what is right for her own body. Assuming that all women are coerced or duped by doctors is offensive. There are a lot of very smart women out there who are able to make their own decisions, again, myself included.

AnnaMarie53

I am shocked so few women (or men) bothered to read this excellent editorial, much less comment on it. I knew all of this years ago, but had trouble finding any worthy research, to say nothing of getting anyone to discuss it. To me it is THE health problem of the past 100 years!

Kwsnelson

Your article did not mention the higher risk of blood clots. I know of two people who had pulmonary embolisms and were in danger of dying. In both cases, the doctors (different
doctors in different states) stated the cause was birth control pills. Another pulmonary doctor told me that most cases involving young women are caused by the pill.

19 yrs ago I learned most
profoundly the meaning of this statement, when my son was 11 and a boy, not
even his close friend, told me he would do sacrifices for my son’s vocation. He
never noticed, but those words hit me like I had heard the voice of God, that
moment. Those words shat thru me, changing me into someone I had never been
before. Since then, that statement
lights my life at every level, not like a lighthouse in the fog, not
like headlights of my car in the rain, not like a candle during prayers, but
like the sun, brilliantly detailing the intricacy of how love rules every
moment, every thought, every step, every temptation to not.
Nine years ago, my husband and I
moved to Omaha, NE. and shortly after, I went to volunteer at a large parish of
mostly Spanish people. Very quickly it became evident what God was drawing my
eyes to see. The Hispanics have NO ACCESS to Natural Family Planning here,
none. The parishes don’t teach it, the radio station tells all about free love,
and their doctors press them ferociously to use contraceptives but better yet
to get sterilized, that is the most practical of all. To date, I have met two
24 yrs old sterilized at 21, irrationally pressed by their doctors to do so.
Countless of married women are been sterilized without knowing what they
signed, and some never signed anything, just went to deliver her second or
third child.
So I became a Natural Family Planning
teacher and I use this statement in my classes as an introduction to Natural
Family Planning. What would you do for love?
The classes teach couples how to
use their conjugal fertility strategically as to space their children according
to their plans, life styles, financial situations, even careers and vacations,
using what is there naturally already, the rhythm of nature. No, it’s not the
rhythm method, nor the calendar method, but the understanding of how to notice
one’s own fertile time.
We, women, learn to know the
time of fertility, the moment of ovulation. Try it, it’s incredibly
empowering. It is true control of one’s
own body, one’s own sensations, one’s own choices, yes, one’s own choices are then
blatantly clear.
As opposed to what??? Any woman
using contraception will tell you about the headaches, sore breasts, moodiness,
weight gain, depression, and some more sensitive ones will tell you that they
know they are used, just used, not loved.
Some may be aware of the side
effects, worst yet are the consequences: the many cancers killing women the past 30 yrs,
such as breast, cervical or ovarian cancer, permanent changes to the cervix, blood
clots, birth defects of the children conceived while on the pill, strokes,
shrinking womb, greater susceptibility to AIDS due to the weakening of the
immune system, irreversible bone loss, decreased libido, acne, hair loss, back
pain, and the knowledge that the pill does not always prevent pregnancies, so early
undetected abortions are a reality, no one knows just how frequently it happens.
That brings back the initial
question. What would she do for love?…Take contraception, even though it may
kill her, for her guy?
But, what would her guy do for
love?? Keep her on contraceptives to “love” her often? Or to take her off
contraceptives to love her deeply?
Current statistic for divorce rates
is 51% across all faiths but it is .2% among NFP users, and for the prayerful ones….? divorce rate is.02%.
So what would you do for love?
Yolanda Bello http://theoutlawedgod.wordpress.com

Tillie

It breaks your heart when a young woman is in tears b/c she can’t conceive due to long term use of birth control before she was married. False security in a woman teens and 20s can lead to empty cradles in her future.

Ann

And I would scream back “The government has no business in MY religion!”

Mrgrt

My young wife experience with near poverty and children one after another led me to look into finding a way to understand my fertility. Our Catholic Church gave a good woman from Nigeria opportunity to teach us NFP. So very wonderful. Her approach was so positive, so beautifully spoken…so pro-life. I have always been surprised this hadn’t been made public knowledge..whatever happened it appears we now have opportunity to correct that lapse. My prayer is that this goes viral. We have a treasure and we must give it to the world. The truth sets people free, you know. God bless America.

Teresa Danze Lemieux

Thank you for writing this, Ms. Giroux! The FDA in December said that it would have to consider new safety measures on newer forms of hormonal contraceptives because of the many reports of blood clotting. How horrible that women have to risk their lives for the FDA to realize that the dangers of hormonal contraceptives should be taken seriously. The fact that these problems have existed since the inception of the Pill and are ignored but so many doctors still push them while not knowing a thing about NFP methods is the real “war on women.”

Terrygeorge

excellent article. keep posting please!

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